Even more oddities spotted in the news

[Bob Schroeck]

Researchers Disprove Their Own Work by Producing Power From Earth's Rotation

[robkelk]

Meanwhile, in Japan, train stations are being 3D-printed in an afternoon

We understand the formwork, used to mold concrete sections, was the component actually 3D printed using mortar. These were then filled with concrete and steel reinforcement to create the four parts of the building and its foundations, which were transported to the site and assembled.

The rail company carried out construction work after the day's train services had finished, with the job taking about 180 minutes. This, it noted, is "considerably shorter" than it would take with conventional methods.

And, of course, the couldn't resist the "Platform-as-a-Service" joke.

[robkelk]

Today's "no shit, Sherlock" story:

Cashless society could be why fewer kids are eating coins and sticking things up their noses

[Bob Schroeck]

The Blue Screen of Death is turning black.

[robkelk]

Congratulations to Jeannie Hunter for winning the MusiCounts Teacher of the Year at the 2025 Juno Awards.

I forget - do the Grammys award a statue to the high-school music teacher of the year, or is that something we only do in Canada?

[Bob Schroeck]

The best and worst April Fools pranks of 2025, according to The Verge.

[Bob Schroeck]

The shelved Coyote vs. Acme film has been rescued, and will finally reach theatres.

[robkelk]

ChatGPT’s improved image generation is now available for free

Now everyone can make ChatGPT Ghibli art.

Why some are concerned over ChatGPT’s new Studio Ghibli-style images

Weigensberg said it’s unclear if this ChatGPT model was trained using Studio Ghibli’s work and, if so, whether OpenAI had a licence or permission to do so.

CBC Kids News reached out to Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki to hear his thoughts on the new ChatGPT model, but we have not heard back.

But in the past, Miyazaki has expressed a strong distaste for AI animation, saying he would “never wish to incorporate this technology into [his] work at all.”

[Dartz]

Dublin City Council picked an excellent date to announce they were appointing stewards to shoo away tourists groping the statue Molly Malone.

[robkelk]

Why America is dyeing potatoes as Easter eggs

[classicdrogn]

I'd say "Insert Steven Colbert "is potato" Russia joke here," but Mr. Tangerine Man is in fact actively attempting to move toward that state, from all appearances, so the jokes on us.

ничего́?

[robkelk]

It's fun making Studio Ghibli-style images with ChatGPT – but intellectual property is no laughing matter

OPINION Many people are having fun making Studio Ghibli-style images with OpenAI's ChatGPT. I see it as copy-and-paste intellectual property stealing on an industrial level.

[robkelk]

In his 20s, he worked in a fish-and-chips shop. Two decades later, he's one of the royal sketch artists.

[robkelk]

Not a recipe that I want to try.

Fentanyl-stuffed rotisserie chicken found by Kingston Police

Not recommend for Easter dinner

Kingston, Ontario, BTW.

[robkelk]

Easter on 4/20: A Stoners Paradise [sic]

It's the final day of Passover, too.

[robkelk]

We appear to have missed these two the first time around.

June 2022:

Margaret Atwood tried—and failed—to burn a copy of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’ Here’s why

Yes, it was a publicity stunt... but the unburnable (at temperatures below 2200 F) copy of The Handmaid’s Tale was auctioned off for $130,000, with proceeds going to PEN America.





December 2022:

Two people showed up to her book signing. Famous authors commiserated.

“Only 2 people came to my author signing yesterday, so I was pretty bummed about it,” Banning tweeted the day after her signing. “Especially as 37 people responded ‘going’ to the event. Kind of upset, honestly, and a little embarrassed.”

But while only two people showed up to her book signing, thousands responded to her post, including Margaret Atwood and Stephen King.

And Jodi Picoult, and Neil Gaiman.

[robkelk]

World War III started yesterday, according to a headline from The Telegraph

It was actually a story about what Japan might do if mainland China invaded Taiwan.

[MilkmanConspiracy]

New Jersey will consider allowing students to use sunscreen per NJ.com. Not sure this is something that was ever actually enforced or just a technicality.

[Bob Schroeck]

Probably a technicality, and the bill waiting for the governor's signature is likely intended to eliminate the possibility that someone goes "letter of the law zero tolerance" and ends up generating all manner of bad publicity.

[robkelk]

'I see you're running a local LLM. Would you like some help with that?'

Clippy is back - and this time, its arrival on your desktop as a front-end for locally run LLMs has nothing to do with Microsoft.

It's only as good as your database, of course.

the app was written as a "love letter" to Clippy,

I suppose somebody had to like Clippy...

[classicdrogn]

People who were learning to use Word when they were young enough that a cartoon animated paperclip was amazing and cool, and weren't yet familiar with the basic UI features it pointed out, but learned them fast enough to figure out how to turn it off before getting too annoying, probably.

I always thought it was a cool concept executed poorly, myself, so if modern AI tech can turn it into something actually useful I have no objections.

If.

[MilkmanConspiracy]

'I see you're running a local LLM. Would you like some help with that?'

Clippy is back - and this time, its arrival on your desktop as a front-end for locally run LLMs has nothing to do with Microsoft.

It's only as good as your database, of course.

the app was written as a "love letter" to Clippy,

I suppose somebody had to like Clippy...

If you’re into 3D Printing, the Czech open source slicer software PrusaSlicer has an ersatz Clippy - "Clippy Jo", which is like a fusion of Clippy and Josef Průša.

[MilkmanConspiracy]

"Ohio police find pet raccoon in car driver’s seat with meth pipe in its mouth" (The Guardian)

[hazard]

That's... certainly a collection of words.